Chapter 19 – Dark red bloodstains

Editor: Xinghe

Translator: YuQiChen/Churen

Jiang Que had no idea how much his words had affected Shen Tazhi. He thought that Shen Tazhi was suddenly afraid of seeing so many tentacles, so he kindly reassured him, saying:

“It’s okay, just find a place to leave them. They are already dead and won’t move.”

Upon hearing this, Shen Tazhi couldn’t help but pause. He couldn’t control the pained expression on his face and simply turned away, not wanting Jiang Que, who now understood these emotions, to see his expression. He gently said:

“Alright, I’ll go pack things up, let’s start climbing up.”

“Climbing?” Jiang Que was puzzled.

The surrounding area was steep cliffs, and unless one could fly, it was impossible for a human body to climb up. How did Shen Tazhi plan on climbing with him?

In the past, perhaps he could have used his strong tentacles to insert into the rocks and lift himself up, but now he was harmed by the array, and with his weak tentacles, he could only threaten Shen Tazhi at best. He no longer had the ability to carry himself up.

With a sense of doubt, Jiang Que followed Shen Tazhi back to the alcohol lamp, squatting down to help him pack up.

But halfway through, his attention was drawn to the zipper on the backpack. Like a small creature that had found a new toy, he excitedly played with the zipper, enjoying the crisp “swish” sound, saying happily:

“This sound is like rain, I like it.”

Having been underground all year round, he had never heard the sound of rain. However, amidst his resentment, he had caught glimpses of natural phenomena from the normal world. In Jiang Que’s understanding, any crisp sound could be equated with the sound of rain.

“Like rain?” Shen Tazhi didn’t quite get it.

“Mhmm.” Jiang Que nodded, “It sounds just like the bag from earlier, both very pleasant, I like it.”

He enjoyed any sound that could break the silence, whether it was the sound of a plastic bag or a zipper.

Shen Tazhi lowered his head, extinguished the last alcohol lamp, put it back in the backpack, and softly said, “If you like it, after we go outside, I can take you to listen to the rain.”

“Okay.” Jiang Que readily agreed.

Although he was reluctant to go outside, he had promised Shen Tazhi. Now that Shen Tazhi was willing to take him out and show him fun things, he was happy.

At this thought, Jiang Que couldn’t help but sigh, “Shen Tazhi, you’re good. You’re the best human I’ve ever met.”

Not dying easily, telling stories, and even giving him delicious food, he was completely unlike the crazy people he had met before.

Shen Tazhi tied Jiang Que’s five tentacles to the backpack, put it back on, and turned around with a smile, saying, “The best? But you’ve probably only met me.”

“It’s the best.” Jiang Que insisted, “I’ve seen many people before.”

“Just better than them, is that it…”

Shen Tazhi muttered incomprehensibly to himself, then raised his head before Jiang Que could ask, saying, “Let’s go, I’ll take you outside.”

He took out a small flashlight from the pocket of his backpack. Worried about the bright light hurting Jiang Que’s eyes, he deliberately wrapped several layers of tissue paper around the flashlight before turning it on.

The dim white light replaced the array that had been shining on the ground. Shen Tazhi led Jiang Que forward until they reached a boundary that Jiang Que couldn’t have reached on his own, stopping in front of a stone wall on the other side.

“So this side only has a wall too.” Jiang Que remarked.

“Yes, this is a square pit, with walls on all four sides, about seventy meters deep.” Shen Tazhi casually explained.

Jiang Que had no concept of length, “Is seventy meters very long?”

Shen Tazhi replied, “Not long, but it’s high. For humans, it’s considered a considerable height, so you need to be careful.”

Shining the flashlight at the wall, Shen Tazhi revealed something to Jiang Que.

There was a soft ladder hanging down to the ground from the wall, looking quite new and out of place against the grey wall behind it.

Surprised, Jiang Que took a few steps forward, “Is this a ladder? Did you put it here?”

“Yes,” Shen Tazhi didn’t hide it from Jiang Que but gave himself a reason, “I happened to have a ladder in my backpack. After being chased here, I needed to escape, so I put the ladder down.”

With his hands occupied by the withered tentacles, Jiang Que extended a small tentacle from his back, coiled the ladder, and after a few tugs to ensure it was secure, he fell into deep thought.

He wasn’t foolish. With so many things off about Shen Tazhi, he couldn’t help but have doubts. However, the other party had maintained a calm attitude and provided reasonable explanations.

Not understanding humans well and unsure if Shen Tazhi’s reasons were trustworthy, in this moment, the only thing he could completely trust without doubt was the shallow bond between him and Shen Tazhi.

As for what lay above, Jiang Que didn’t know. He only knew that he was making the boldest gamble of his eighteen years of existence.

He sighed softly, “Before we go out, could you finish telling me the story, Shen Tazhi?”

“Sure,” Shen Tazhi replied.

Anyway, he didn’t just prepare this book. After going out, there were countless novels he could show Jiang Que, so it was completely unnecessary to guard this one book to attract Jiang Que’s attention.

But the premise was to get out first.

Thinking of the people outside who was ready to meet Jiang Que, Shen Tazhi couldn’t help but feel a little worried.

If those people’s attitudes were too bad and Jiang Que misunderstood him, what should he do…

Shaking his head, he pushed aside these thoughts that needed to be resolved after going out and looked up at the high wall with a bitter smile, hoping he could hold on, otherwise falling halfway wouldn’t be fun at all.

“Let’s go, I’ll tell you a story when we get up there.”

Shen Tazhi said, biting the flashlight in his mouth, then he grabbed the soft ladder and started climbing up, taking a step ahead of Jiang Que.

Jiang Que still held his small tentacles in his arms, but fortunately, climbing the ladder with tentacles was not too difficult for him now. He followed Shen Tazhi, using his own tentacles to hook the rope ladder, imitating Shen Tazhi’s actions to lift himself up with his tentacles.

Both were lost in their own thoughts, silently climbing the rope ladder. At that moment, the entire underground was dark except for the dim light and Shen Tazhi’s slight breathing.

Upwards, further up.

Time seemed to slow down at this moment, but the tentacles did not feel tired from this level of movement, only Shen Tazhi seemed somewhat average.

After all, he was a fragile human.

When Jiang Que heard Shen Tazhi’s gradually heavier breathing, he had already started to become distracted. Just as he hesitated whether to use his tentacles to help Shen Tazhi, the tentacles climbing the ladder suddenly sensed a strange sticky feeling.

Did they touch something?

Puzzled, Jiang Que raised his tentacle to eye level, then switched to a clean tentacle to hook the ladder, wanting to see what he had accidentally touched.

The next second, he saw the familiar dark red bloodstains on the tentacle.

Jiang Que’s brain crashed.

“Shen Tazhi, stop!”

His tentacles, in a state of blank thought, made the most instinctive reaction – they directly hooked around Shen Tazhi’s waist, pulling him down while Shen Tazhi was focused on climbing the ladder, leaving him hanging in mid-air.

Caught off guard, Shen Tazhi looked at Jiang Que in confusion, holding the flashlight in his mouth and hesitantly asking, “Jiang Que…?”

What’s going on?

Jiang Que remained silent, pulling Shen Tazhi’s right hand over with a cold expression. By the light of the flashlight, he could see the current state of the other person’s hand:

The originally simple disinfected wound, cut open by the talisman, was rubbed raw and torn because of the rough hemp rope and excessive force. Now, half of Shen Tazhi’s palm was a blurry mess of flesh and blood, the entire palm covered in blood. Jiang Que couldn’t even determine with the naked eye where the wound was.

“You…” Jiang Que was so angry that he stumbled over his words, taking a while to remember what he wanted to say. “If you were injured and couldn’t climb the ladder, you should have told me. I don’t know under what circumstances you humans get injured. If you didn’t tell me and tried to climb up, you…”

He stopped halfway through, stumbling over his words again. In the past, he rarely experienced such intense emotions and had never truly ‘conversed’ with a human before, so now he couldn’t find the right words to express himself.

Unable to figure out what to say, Jiang Que simply fell silent. When he looked up, he met Shen Tazhi’s bewildered expression as he held the flashlight in his hand, completely unaware of the seriousness of the situation. This made Jiang Que even angrier.

He directly snatched the flashlight from Shen Tazhi’s mouth with his tentacle. “Speak!”

Shen Tazhi blinked, puzzled, but apologized first, “I’m sorry?”

Jiang Que, full of anger, exclaimed, “You’re just sorry? What if you die!”

Shen Tazhi then realized why Jiang Que had such a strong reaction all of a sudden and said lightly, “I won’t die. I told you before, humans are fine if they only bleed a little.”

Raising his dirty, blood-stained hand, Jiang Que said, “But you also said that humans can die if they get infected with bacteria.”

Shen Tazhi didn’t know how to explain the probabilistic issue of ‘infection’ to Jiang Que. His wrist was being gripped tightly by Jiang Que’s tentacle, causing him pain, but he dared not struggle. He could only try to explain, “Humans have antibodies in their bodies. In this situation, maybe there won’t be an infection, and even if there is, it won’t happen so quickly. If you’re really worried, you can go to the hospital after getting out to deal with it.”

Although Shen Tazhi’s explanation was reasonable, Jiang Que had encountered strange explanations from him before due to his lack of understanding of humans. Therefore, Jiang Que only half believed him and was not ready to let go of Shen Tazhi. Instead, he asked, “How far are we from the top now?”

Shen Tazhi roughly estimated the distance and replied, “Probably about… one-third of the way?”

“Okay,” Jiang Que responded, rolling Shen Tazhi up and starting to climb up. “Don’t move, stay quiet.”

With just this little distance left, he could easily take Shen Tazhi up with him.

Jiang Que never liked people challenging his decisions. Seeing the anger in Jiang Que’s eyes, Shen Tazhi temporarily set aside his persuasion and maintained this somewhat awkward posture as he was rolled forward by Jiang Que.

Two tentacles climbed the ladder, one tentacle held the flashlight, and another tentacle had to hold him… Luckily, Jiang Que had eight tentacles, otherwise, he really wouldn’t be able to manage it all.

Watching Jiang Que’s tentacles, Shen Tazhi’s thoughts began to drift away.

There had been a similar scene in the previous life.

At that time, he was the one dragging the half-unconscious Jiang Que behind him, while holding onto the ladder to climb up.

Back then, Jiang Que was already half-conscious, lying on his back, mumbling, weak and powerless, unable to be fierce, just repeatedly calling out, saying his tentacles hurt.

Shen Tazhi was sweating profusely, but besides continuing to climb up, he was powerless to do anything else, just tirelessly responding to Jiang Que, trying to get him to hold on a little longer.

…If only he had a few more hands back then.

As Shen Tazhi’s thoughts began to drift elsewhere, Jiang Que’s angry and energetic voice came through:

“We’re almost there. Don’t speak in a moment. Don’t speak until I figure out how to scold you!”

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